Experiences by Group 3, Emily, Joshua, Rebecca & Maggie

After a week in Uganda we have already spent a lot of time with our new group members Joshua and Maggie. They are studying a MBA program in project management at MUBS.  Emilie and Rebekka are visiting from CBS, studying Business and Development studies. Even though we all come from different cultural backgrounds and age, we knew straight away that this was not going to stop us. 

Our overall topic is the informal sector. The first days we spent on discussing what we wanted to focus on. We finally decided to look further into the informal transport sector and specifically the boda bodas. We want to investigate the relationship between the role of their associations in mediating between the government and the boda boda riders. For those at home who are not familiar with the term “boda boda”, it is a motorbike that is used as taxi to drive people around.  It is the fastest and most convenient way to get around Kampala - especially in rush hours - though it might not be the safest.

Last weekend we went on a trip to Jinja to explore the source of the Nile. The bus ride was quite long, when we finally got to the boats taking us out to the source itself, we managed to lose one of our group members.  Luckily it all worked out in the end and after some waiting we took the bus together to Adrift Nile Lodge where people had the chance to do water rafting and bungee jumping. There were only a few people who had shown interest in the rafting, but with a bit of group pressure 10 people ended up doing it. Emilie and Rebekka on the other hand decided to really experience the boda bodas and took a three hour ride to a small island on the Nile. This turned out to be a good idea when we got to see the terrible sunburns of the rafters J

Experiences by group 1 – Teddy, Sarah, Karina and Søs

First of all welcome to the MUBS/CBS blog. This first entry from a group is by Teddy, Sarah, Karina and Søs – Sisters from another mother!

Sarah and Teddy are both MUBS students and they are studying their master of business administration, majoring in project management. Karina is studying her master of Business and Development Studies, while Søs is studying Leadership and management with a minor in Social Entrepreneurship Studies, both from CBS. These very different backgrounds have made for a very interesting group. We have decided to write about social entrepreneurship in Kampala and specifically we will be focusing on the skills and competencies of social entrepreneurs from Kampala and how the entrepreneurs utilize their social capital in their businesses. So far we have been at it for four days and a lot has happened. We have specified our research topic, gotten in contact with social entrepreneurs and spoken with people involved in social entrepreneurship in Kampala. What we have discovered is that entrepreneurs are not hard to find in Uganda. Everyone is an entrepreneur, a business man/woman or an innovator. You do not ask someone whether they work or not, but rather what their business is.

During these first days we have of course also spend a lot of time getting to know our fellow group members, class members and, for the Danish part, getting familiar with the Pearl of Africa: Uganda!

On Wednesday the whole class went to the Ndere cultural Centre to see a dance group perform traditional Ugandan dance from several regions of Uganda. It was an amazing experience for us all. The CBS students could do nothing but be amazed and impressed by the dancing and singing while the MUBS students could tell about the familiar dances and songs from their own home regions. Our own Sarah is from the western part of Uganda, which is known for its cows with long white horns, amazing milk, and (apparently) its very slow moving women! Our Teddy is from Buganda and that region also has its own dances that we got to see some of. You can see a video from the evening below – According to our hosts at the show, rap was invented in Africa and after seeing the video you will not doubt that fact. That guy can really rap!

Today we had a visit from the Danish Ambassador in Uganda, Mr. Dan Frederiksen, as well as Mette and Jonas from the embassy. During this first week of the programme in Uganda the class has also visited the Private Sector Foundation Uganda and the Uganda Investment Authority and it is amazing to experience the interest in our MUBS/CBS collaboration from both Denmark and Uganda.   

At Private Sector Foundation Uganda

In the Bus.....

One of the Teams in the MUBS CBS Collabo

Introduction to the FSEU field study course – MUBS and CBS blog

In order to introduce you to this blog, here are a few words about the FSEU field study course in Uganda.

We are a group of 20 students from Makerere University Business School (MUBS) in Kampala and 20 students from Copenhagen Business School (CBS) who are working with research projects within the area of entrepreneurship and private sector development in Uganda.  The group work is conducted in groups of four, constituted of 2 MUBS and 2 CBS students in each group. Various research topics have been chosen in the field of social entrepreneurship, the informal sector, female entrepreneurship and microfinance, among others.

The major purpose of this blog is to share the experience in the field doing research, and general dynamics of working in groups and experience in Uganda.